Cutsheet:

JBL® HiQnet Performance Manager™ is a software application designed to configure networked audio systems within performance venues such as theatre, house of worship, and corporate and other live sound events. It dramatically reduces design time, simplifies networking and automates control interface configuration. With considerable expert system design knowledge embedded directly into the software, Performance Manager cleverly disguises the complexity of system configuration and guides even the less-experienced user through the process so as to achieve a far more optimal result than would otherwise be possible.

It achieves this at the top-level with a comprehensive workflow paradigm, enabling the operator simply to start at the beginning by predicting speaker coverage, and then work his way through the remaining system configuration stages one step at a time. Each workflow stage provides a dedicated interface tailored for that specific function, thereby providing a clear focus as to the goal of each operation. The workflow finishes with an inbuilt and cohesive show monitoring and control interface.

Most significantly, all design and control is truly achieved at the system level, the more-traditional software model of individual device control still being possible, but rightly repositioned as the advanced use case.

Several innovative design concepts exist within Performance Manager:

Templates for flown and ground-stacked loudspeakers with pre-defined grouping information provide the starting point for configuration

An integrated predictive modeling tool drives the detailed configuration of the templates for both powered loudspeakers or passive loudspeaker / amplifier combinations

All amplifiers are added to a passive loudspeaker system and each amplifier channel is associated with the appropriate loudspeaker bandpass input in a single automated step

The correct loudspeaker tunings and all parameters derived from the predictive modeling are loaded into powered loudspeakers or amplifiers automatically

Networking is reduced to a simple drag-and-drop to connect each virtual rack or powered array in the software with the target physical rack or array on the network

All required control interfaces are included in the software for system calibration EQ, system tuning EQ, delay and gain eliminating the laborious task of creating customized interfaces

All DSP is abstracted with an automatic mapping of controls to devices, regardless of the specific system configuration, providing a consistent interface for each and every system

An integrated final mode converts the design workspace immediately into an interface for running the show, providing monitoring for input / output metering, load, AC and thermal levels, all monitoring driven from the representations of the loudspeakers, regardless of whether powered or amplified passive loudspeakers

Distributed Fills now circuit inside-to-out in a more comprehensive manner. The center-fill circuits inside to out within the fill group

Meters that were previously rendered horizontally are now rendered vertically adding consistency and readability

Ground-stacks-on-end left/center/right is now more distinct and easier to configure

EQ graphs now have A/B ability (save and undo state)

New in version 1.7:

Support for JBL VTX F Series speakers

New circuiting functionality - Circuits for Ground Stacks on-end are built in an inside-to-out (on-stage-to-off) fashion - Center stacks mirror their circuit configuration - The circuit jumpers of cardioid subs are separated so non-consecutive circuiting and more economical cardioid triplets can be created - Crown VRACK 12000 amplifier channels are now automatically associated with sub bandpasses by using channel 1 of all three amplifiers before associating with channel 2 - Automatic mirroring applies to more parameters: delay, bandpass gain, circuit level attenuation, limiter reduction

Online matching now has the option of preserving the physical device addresses and making the virtual device in Performance Manager receive the HiQnet address from the networked device - This option in available in the options dialog under the networking section

In Amplify Manually mode the associations can be made directly by dragging speaker bandpasses to amplifier channels or vice versa - The original method still remains

A fix has been implemented so that online-mode parameter values (delay, EQ, bandpass gain) are not lost when the speaker preset is changed

It is now possible to use circuit jumpers to mute individual circuits

The circuit jumper now shows the mute state for the circuit

Templates for Ground Stacks have been substantially changed - It is now possible to select any number of column or row stacks - Selecting an odd number of Ground Stacks on-end will create a center stack that circuits inside to out within itself

Templates for Distributed Fills can have any number of fills

In Tune System mode the delay spinners are broken out into fine (21 microseconds) and course (0.5 milliseconds) bump amounts (arrows)

The impedance report in Test System has been updated

The Array Configuration dialog now has an ‘auto’ VRACK wiring mode option – selecting this will allow Performance Manager to decide the most economical use of VRACKS and can be used instead of the Advanced tab for complex scenarios

Powered speakers can now have user-specified addressing

Bugs fixed

For powered DPDA devices the input fader was incorrectly hooked up in 1.6 and 1.6.1 versions (earlier versions were fine) - This could be seen in Test System mode signal generation on the main fader and applying array shading from Line Array Calculator

A number of muting and selection issues have been addressed

Muting is more explicit

Issues with going to Device view have been addressed

Rules regarding reversing subwoofers have been improved - The rules within Line Array Calculator remain master

Several issues with user-specified addressing have fixed

A few issues with Line Array Calculator and saving and loading files have been fixed

Notes

In online modes, if a dbx DriveRack 4800 goes offline and comes back online it was set to send device state which caused a mute to happen as the device state was updated - This behavior has been changed for the dbx DriveRack 4800 only – in this scenario Performance Manager will receive the dbx DriveRack 4800’s device state and not mute

Subwoofers can no longer be put into distributed fills

I-Tech 4x3500HD firmware has been updated

In Set Speaker Tunings mode, the defaults for Throw have been changed

Speed of muting has been optimized

Speed of going into Device view has been optimized

New in version 1.6:

New I-Tech HD 4x3500 firmware version 1042 – this is a critical update for front display operation

In Test System mode, the Group muting controls are available as well as the Signal Generator controls

Each Array / Ground Stack now has its own mute button to enable left / right testing and tuning

When selecting groups within the Group list, the affected speakers are highlighted in the main workspace to aid navigation

Amplification of Arrays / Ground Stack is now possible from the Configure Array dialog

Delay for Arrays and Ground Stacks is now completely separate from subwoofer / EDS delay) - The delay product panels now show the two separate delay values - Note: I-Tech Series and MAi Series amplifiers do not have this ability - Bug fixed: delay configuration will not be corrupted when launching / closing Line Array Calculator having been online

New library clean-up tool - Custom Racks and Generic Speakers are archived in both the performance file and on disk - over time these libraries can accumulate and lead to inadvertently large files - A new ‘Clean’ button has been added to both Add Speakers and Add Amplifiers modes to remove Custom Racks and Generic Speakers not in the current file from both the file itself as well as the disk library

Bugs fixed in version 1.6

Delay setting of zero no longer sent to amplifiers having been online and returning to Line Array Calculator

Cleaned up display of Racks and Arrays and minor bugs with duplicate names

File marked as ‘edited’ in several missing places in order to correctly prompt for saving changes

Fixes for bugs for user-specified amplifier addresses when adding amplifiers

Fix for incorrect delay values being sent to amplifiers when using mixed Arrays of 2-channel I-Tech HD Series and I-Tech HD 4x3500 amplifiers

Updates to amplifier / bandpass selection and muting

Switching the delay units radio button to ‘feet’ on a small display no longer makes the ‘meters’ and ‘seconds’ radio buttons disappear